Sermons Online

return to archives

"Think on These Things" by Rev. Melanie Silva

October 13, 2002
Philippians 4:4-9

(Opens with solo, "Last Night I had the Strangest Dream")

Why is it that the way of peace exists only as a dream? I have given a lot of thought lately to this question. I have wondered why it is so and what we can do to live as the apostle Paul has suggested: to do whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, and whatever is gracious. I have wondered why it is that peace is only a dream.

I was surprised to find a part of the answer in the sports section of the San Diego Union. Did you see the article a couple of weeks ago? The headline jumped out at me: "Carlos Hernandez reports beating." (9/23/02) It caught my attention because he was the starting catcher for the Padres when they went to the World Series and I have always liked his grit. The article told how Hernandez was severely beaten by three white men who screamed racial slurs at him.

That same week, the article continued, former Padres minor league coordinator Tom Gamboa, who is now an umpire, was attacked and beaten by a father and his fifteen-year-old son. They ran onto the field in the middle of the game, presumably because they didn't like the way he was calling the game.

"It just makes you wonder what's going on with our society today, how kids are being raised," Padres manager Bruce Bochy said. "This is getting out of hand, what's going on all over."

All over indeed. It chills me to see photographs of young children with rifles aimed at other young children with rifles aimed at them- because they were taught to hate-the only emotion that must be taught to our children, according to a noted child psychologist.

It makes you wonder…how our kids are being raised. And make no mistake about it: we are all responsible for the raising of our children, whether it be in the neighborhood or our church family. And we are responsible too for the raising of our selves...to a higher standard, to the virtues that Paul emphasizes so we can create the peace and harmony to live with our neighbor.

How to create what is just and pure and lovely and honorable? Let me tell you a few stories that have been a part of my life lately-now that I have a little extra time to play! I was doing just that with a six-year-old friend of mine. We were playing the game "Concentration." And you don't have to concentrate very hard to understand how it is played, so don't worry.

About fifty cards of cartoon characters are laid face down on the playing area; each player takes their turn by turning over two cards. The idea is to remember the cards you turn over; the one with the most pairs at the end of the game wins.

I want you to know that I had no qualms about playing this game with a six-year-old. When I was growing up, we played a similar game and I always-well, almost always, won. So I was ready to play with Brianna. We played five games. In all five games, I got..consistently..two pairs each game. But she did not gloat over her victories. Instead, she thanked me for playing with her.

When she asked me to play again, I said… "But Brianna I am so terrible at this game." "Don't worry," she replied: "I will help you." And she did. Everytime I turned up a card that had been revealed before, she very sweetly said, "If I were you, I would turn over this one next."

I telephoned Brianna after her first day of kindergarten. She was in a new neighborhood and a new school and she didn't know one single person.

"Did you make a friend today?"

"Oh yes," she replied, "I made a lot of friends."

"Really?" I questioned, quite surprised at her cheerful reply. " A lot of friends?"

"Oh yes," she confirmed. "That's just the kind of girl I am."

Whatever is pure…whatever is lovely…if there be anything worthy of praise, think about these things…and do them. How outstanding that the adults in Brianna's life have taught her to reach out to others and to be a source of encouragement and harmony.

And lest you think this behavior is restricted to sweet little girls, I want you to hear about when I played "Candyland" with Colten. I fared a bit better in this game because I didn't have to think too hard. The idea is to reach the candy castle; you do this by moving your player to the colored square indicated on the card you draw. The tension in this game involves the special places on the board that you must move your player to when you draw a card that has a picture on it, which could catapult you toward the candy castle-or drag you back to the beginning of the game.

As soon as Bill and I started playing with him, Colten said to me, "You are going to get Queen Frosting"-which happens to be the spot as close to the candy castle as one could get. About half way through the game, the card came up: only Colten was the one who drew it. As soon as he saw the picture on the card, he handed it to me and said, "No, this was your card; it's your turn." Bill and I exchanged a glance, marveling at this act of kindness.

And that wasn't all. On his very next turn, Colten drew Mr. Plumby, who happens to live very near the start of the game. "Oh no," I said, "You have to go all the way back." "That's okay," he reassured me. "It's not that far."

Colten is three years old. How wonderful that he is already learning to deal with adversity in such a positive manner. Whatever is pure-whatever is lovely-whatever is honorable-think on these things.

"Are you having a bagel for breakfast," I asked my four-year-old pal over the phone. "No," he said; "I will give you a hint: it goes in the toaster."(He must know how lousy I am at the concentration game!) "Hmmm.." I hazard a guess: "Toast?" "That's right," he exclaimed; "you got it!"

It was such a little thing, really; but his exuberance touched my heart and echoing through my days is a little voice that says, "That's right! You got it."

"Whatever is worthy of praise," Paul writes, "think about these things."

One of the tenets of the after school Logos program that we had here for several years for children and youth was this: Catch a child being good. It is far and away the most natural to notice the child who is disruptive; yet Paul said "if there is anything worthy of praise…" And I have a hunch we are far more prone to write a letter of complaint than a letter of praise.

The Reverend Martin Pike, Jr. of Kingsville Texas related an event that occurred in his life that easily could have been written by me. He writes:

Three minutes had elapsed since I had taken my seat at the counter. Waitresses passed me by; two cooks and a busboy took no notice of my presence. My ego was soothed only because the truck driver seated next to me was ignored as well. "Maybe this counter is off-limits," I said to him. "Maybe they are short of help," he responded." Maybe they don't want our business, " I said. "Maybe they are taking care of those at the tables," was his reply. The hands on the clock continued to move. "Maybe they don't like us," I insisted. "The air conditioning feels so good I don't mind waiting," he said. At this point, a harried waitress stopped to tell us that the water had been cut off and the dishwasher was not functioning. My nameless compatriot smiled, thanked the waitress and left. I did not like him. Three times I had sought his support for my obnoxious attitude, but he had let me down. Only later did I realize that he had chosen to practice what I preach.

To make peace more than a dream, we have to live it.

Daphne Grab teaches history at a public high school in Los Angeles. She describes her school as being on the "wrong side of the boulevard." She grew up in a small New York town that did not even have a stop sign until she herself was sixteen-and so she wonders who is teaching whom what. She constantly finds herself re-evaluating her definitions and understandings of concepts that at one time had seemed straight forward. One of those concepts is peace, not peace, I might add, as in a dream, but peace "as a breathing entity, an expression of love, that has relevance in the lives of kids crippled by violence."

Daphne tells of the time she jumped between Hernan and Jose. She was stunned to see the blood pouring down Jose's face and the rage in Hernan's eyes.

"Those eyes looked dead when I saw Hernan after school in the office handcuffed to a bench," Daphne writes. " There was a flicker of feeling when I told him to take care and I would call on him."

"I heard his side of the story when I went to his home a few days later. It seems that a week before, Jose had called him a wetback-the ultimate insult and the one receiving it is obliged to protect his reputation. Hernan did not want to fight so he went to the dean and asked for help. "The dean had dismissed his concerns, leaving Hernan feeling like he was on his own. When Jose called him a wetback again in my classroom, Hernan said that he had to hit him. He used words like honor and pride and stressed that he had not had a choice. He could not allow himself to be disrespected by Jose without suffering a serious blow to his reputation and that reputation mattered to him more than anything else in his life did."

"There is so much violence in the lives of these children on so many levels that they are often not exposed to any form of peace," Daphne writes. "In my classroom, I have the opportunity to counter that. I can create peace. I can discourage competition and build community by respecting what each student has to offer and listening to them when they speak. I can encourage them to learn from each other and recognize each class member as a person of value. I can value their ideas, encouraging them to build up faith in themselves, so that they can trust to look deeper into themselves for truth…I can create a space of peace-a small step towards countering the violence that they know." (related in "The Living Pulpit" Oct-Dec. 1998)

In a school closer to home, Roosevelt Middle School in Oceanside, a peace quilt hangs above the school entrance with these words: "Increase peace, decrease violence, accept diversity." 100 young Ambassadors stand behind these words-eighth graders taught to be mediators. "When a friend got me angry," reports one student, "I could handle it with words. The words were neutral and led to conciliation instead of further anger." (SD Union, 10/12/02) Peace doesn't just happen. We can make a difference regardless of what we do.

Imagine the surprise of the middle-aged man who read his obituary in the morning paper. It was obviously reported in error by a French reporter, for it was the man's brother who had, in fact, died. But as he read his own obituary, the man was shocked at the way the world saw him: an inventor of dynamite and weapons of war. He was described as the dynamite king and merchant of death and destruction, not as a person with ideals and goals and true meaning and purpose of life.

And so it was that Alfred Nobel established the most prestigious prize for international distinction in physics, chemistry, medicine and literature: and for the promotion of peace.

Not all of us can fund awards for excellence. Nor can we dodge our responsibility to create peace with the words…if only…for all of us have something to give and all of us have something to do to follow the advice of Paul.

Finally, my friends, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is gracious, if there is any just excellence if there is anything worthy of praise, think on these things. What you have learned and received and heard, do.

(Solo: "If I had a hammer.")

What you have learned and received and heard and seen, do; and the God of peace will be with you. Amen.